This invention relates broadly to the art of sheet feeding apparatus, and more particularly to sheet feeders including mechanisms for diverting particular sheets to various paths.
A number of sheet diverter systems are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos: 3,460,673 to Sanner; 3,472,506 to Rabinow et al.; 3,543,929 to Mattia et al.; 3,556,518 to Brockmueller et al.; 3,674,143 to Hunter et al.; 3,791,516 to Tramposch; 3,768,644 and 3,754,647 to di Frank et al.; 3,820,775 to Miller; and 3,724,657 to Katagiri.
Most of these diverter systems comprise diverter walls which are moved between several positions to guide leading edges of sheets into respective paths. The Rabinow et al. system is somewhat unusual in that it employs a gear-shaped diverter which catches the leading edges of sheets with teeth and rotates them to either the left or the right. Miller and Katagiri describe sheet diverters which employ moveable rollers and belts for guiding sheets along desired paths.
A difficulty with all of these systems is that they are relatively slow to react in fast conveying situations. In this respect, in many present-day sheet-feeding systems, it is desired to separate a card or sheet from a normal path while yet allowing subsequent sheets to be fed immediately thereafter along the normal path. For example, in preparing cancelled checks for mailing bank statements, separator cards are placed between the checks of different individuals. As these checks are processed by an envelope-inserter machine, the separator cards are sensed by the machine for dividing the checks into different stacks corresponding to the individuals. The checks and separator cards are fed at extremely high speeds, one immediately after the other. Because of the difficulties involved in retrieving the separator cards in such an environment, the separator cards are usually simply sent with the checks to the individual customers. Such a procedure is wasteful and expensive.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a sheet diverter or retriever which can divert sheets from a normal path to a secondary path under conditions of high speed feeding.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a sheet diverter which is relatively uncomplicated in structure and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a sheet diverter having a position which is normally out of the path of travel of sheets but which can be selectively energized to move into and out of the normal path to thereby divert selected sheets travelling therein to a secondary path without affecting subsequently fed sheets.